By no means do I pretend to see the future, but I think I can take an educated stab at how consulting life may change once the COVID crisis is over. Many prospective consulting candidates are probably keen to know what to expect.
I want to highlight that I speak not only from my own personal consulting experience, but also from that of my friends across many different firms. In this article I will give you a high level view, and it is worth keeping in mind that there may be exceptions and nuances that affect your particular situation.
How will COVID-19 affect client travel?
Client travel has been seriously impacted by COVID-19, and no one really doubts that regular client travel will come to an end.
Given this widely held view, the remote consulting that is currently going on is probably being used by firms to pinpoint specific areas where in-person meetings are preferable. For example, there is a lot to be said for communicating in person and being able to draw on a whiteboard to visualize concepts. Consulting is ultimately a relationship driven profession, and it is also much easier to build client relationships with a warm handshake rather than via email or Zoom meetings.
Despite the benefits of in-person meetings, client travel faces two key challenges.
1. Office habits of the client
Many companies are discussing plans to downsize their office space and adopt a flexible “hot desking” model for occupying the office in a post COVID-19 workplace. As a result, clients are likely to have a lot less office-space, and so it will be less feasible for consultants to work from the client’s office regularly.
2. Cost management
Travel is paid for by the client. Now that clients and consultants have gained extensive experience with remote consulting, clients will naturally have an incentivize to manage costs in general.
How might travel change?
For those unfamiliar with consulting travel, the traditional model involves traveling from Monday to Thursday to work at the client site. Although this will likely continue, it probably won’t happen every week. Instead, Monday to Thursday travel will likely occur only on certain weeks where distinct value can be created by in-person contact. Naturally, travel will be more prevalent among the senior consulting ranks who are responsible for the relationship management aspect of an engagement. The lower level consultants (those coming straight from undergrad and, in most firms, those coming from graduate programs) will still likely travel for client engagement and team building purposes. However, since relationship management is less prevalent at those levels, travel will be less extensive. Some practices within firms were already adopting this approach to consulting travel, and I think this it will be a common post-COVID-19 reality.
Why this matters for new consultants?
Diminished travel means that three valued perks of consulting will diminish.
- Reward points from travel – With less persistent travel, there will be less opportunities to collect frequent flyer miles and hotel points. Consultants regularly use points collected from persistent travel to support personal travel. With reduced points, this perk will be diminished.
- Alt travel – Many consultants substitute the paid flight back home for the Friday to Sunday outside the client site with a paid flight to an alternative location of approximate or lesser cost. This is frequently called alt travel and is used to visit college friends or just enjoy different locations. With diminished travel, this perk will also subside.
- Per diem – When traveling, consulting firms generally provide a daily allotment for food expenses and consultants often consider this as part of their compensation. Per diem is generally not afforded to those working remotely.
Although the perks of travel might be reduced, for those consultants who enjoy working remotely and having greater access to their city of residence, this may make consulting more appealing. I wouldn’t recommend anyone get into consulting imagining that they can avoid travel altogether. However, it probably will be less extensive.
The bottom line
For those who seek the consulting career for travel and the associated perks, you will need to adjust your expectations.
For those who have been potentially shying away from consulting based upon travel concerns, you may now want to consider whether consulting can work for you if less regular travel is what the future holds.
Hall Wang is a dual degree MBA and Master of Public Policy graduate from Georgetown University who has recently matriculated into a major management consulting firm. He has worked at America’s most innovative companies including Blue Origin and Facebook, as well as having done two combat deployments as a US Army Officer.
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